Hi Louis,
I appreciated your post to Marxmail (I read the archives) about Sam
Harris. It actually reminded me of something I'd intended to e-mail you
about a few years ago.
Harris is also associated with the skeptic movement which you rightly
criticized a while back, particularly Shermer's Skeptics Society.
Shermer's group is, of course, best known for publishing Skeptic
magazine, the editorial board of which includes Napoleon Chagnon and
Jared Diamond.
I'm afraid they're not the worst, though. Something you overlooked in
your original post is that the senior editor of Skeptic since its
inception has been an infamous scientific racist, Frank Miele. Ferris
State's Institute for the Study of Academic Racism has a good dossier:
http://www.ferris.edu/isar/bibliography/miele.htm. His books include
Intelligence, Race, and Genetics: Conversations with Arthur Jensen and
Race: The Reality of Human Differences with Vincent Sarich (a defender
of the multiregional hypothesis of human origins, described by fellow
Berkely anthropologist Laura Nader as a racist). He's received funding
from the neo-eugenicist Pioneer Fund.
Miele also edits the Daily Inter Lake newspaper. You can read his
completely unhinged columns here:
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/opinion/columns/
Astoundingly, none of this has drawn the attention, much less the ire,
of anyone in the skeptic community. There is one exception, Arizona
State University biologist and science historian John Lynch:
http://scienceblogs.com/strangerfruit/2007/08/13/frank-miele-uncommon-descent-a/
Sorry this wasn't more timely. Still thought you might be interested.
Comradely,
Sam W.